Hero Drabbles
by Hellsfirescythe
Summary: A collection of short stories about NBC's Heroes. Mostly Hiro and Andocentric. Each story will have its own individual rating, see the heading for more info. AUish
1. Priorities

Title: Priorities  
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
Characters: Hiro and his friend  
Rating: PG  
Challenge: The eclipse challengeWarnings: Spoilers for a bit of Hiro's personal life and the premiere show.  
Notes: Post-premiere and I apologize if I got the name of Hiro's friend wrong. I just couldn't find it anywhere. EDIT Name found and fixed. Thanks **technosage**

* * *

"See! See! Ando, I got you this." 

The taller man looked up from his cubical desk and stared quizzically towards the speaker and the package that had been shoved in front of his face.

Ando ignored the proffered item and unconsciously tapped the butt of his pen on the artificially roughed up vinyl of the desk. "Hiro, where were you this morning?"

A squeal of glee burst out, unrestrained by the smaller man. Ando closed his eyes, resigning to the fact that the sounds of plastic squeaking and the lessening of the sound of papers shuffling that half the office had stopped their work to see what had captured Nakamura Hiro's attention _this_ time.

Hiro's body was practically quivering in glee. Quickly, the man leaned in and said in a delighted near whisper. "I was in New York City!"

"Ah yes, the 'Big Apple'," muttered Ando sarcastically. "I suppose you traveled there by bending space and time continuum, right?"

Glee practically radiated from Hiro's beaming face. "You believe me?"

Before Ando could get a word in edge-wise, the package was thrust forth again. "See, Ando. I brought this back with me from New York City," Hiro jabbered, stopping only to enunciate the syllables of the American metropolitan. Apparently, his excitement only further lessened his patience and the brown paper of the package was torn open, its contents spilling out into Ando's lap.

The words on the glossy cover were unfamiliar, but the pictures were painfully familiar, bringing up memories of earlier years, of the multiple times that the Hiro had dragged Ando over to the smaller man's apartment to spend 'quality time' pouring over these American manga...comics, Hiro had said. X-Men, Superman, Spiderman, the list just went on.

"What else did you bring back? American burgers and french fries?"

A rueful look spread over Hiro's visage before a smile crinkled the corner of his eyes. "No, pardon me! I forgot, but I did eat at McDonalds, see, they have Happy Meals." Hiro dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a cheap action-figure still in its plastic bag. "I got to keep the toy."

"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Hiro, if you keep this up, everyone will think you've gone crazy. You'll be fired, you'll bring dishonor upon your name that won't be fixed by your comics and dreams."

"I'm not making this up!

"Look!"

Ando grabbed one of the comics off his lap and jabbed his finger roughly at its cover. "This is a story, Hiro. This isn't real, this doesn't matter." He dropped the book and brought up a manila folder. "This is reality. This matters. This is what we prepared for since high school, since college. This is life. Much more important than your stories."

It was as if a blow had been dealt on the other man. Excitement fled from Hiro's eyes only to be replaced by a wounded look of betrayal.

"You'll see, I'll prove it to you one day."

Refusing to look into the other's pain filled eyes, Ando returned back to his computer and resumed the daily routine of number-crunching and data-mining. Footsteps padded away and heated whispers seemed to spread like an infestation through the office and Ando felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment for both him and Hiro. A dull slap jolted him from an equation and Ando glared down to see the shiny new comics Hiro had brought to him.

With a vexed growl, the offending items were lifted up and jettisoned into his waste bin.

It didn't matter. Hiro would come to his senses sooner or later.

Work eclipsed anything in its importance. Hiro would see that soon.


	2. Wish

Title: Consistant  
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
For: **heroes50**  
Prompt: 01. Wish  
Rating: PGCharacters: Ando and Hiro  
Note: Is anyone out there willing to beta any of my Heroes fanfiction? I'd willingly accept anybody and be extremely grateful!

_"Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?"_ -Thomas A Kempis

_"My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself..."_ -Trieu Thi Trinh

* * *

Thomas Kasey. 

The bold black letters on the transfer-student's name tag announced his presence to the class even more than their teacher had. Ando sized up the American boy over the top of his econ book.

Really, there was nothing impressive about the red-head. There was always a transfer student in one year and gone the next. This one wasn't much different. His peachy colored skin was beginning to redden from all the attention, making the tanned blotches that Americans called freckles blend in better on his skin. Nearby girls were blushing and giggling.

"Oh, look at his eyes."

"They're so green."

"He's so handsome."

Ando fought back a sneer. Handsome? The boy looked like cheap rice-waffer, probably burnt like a lobster underneat the sun, probably was a horrible influence as well. Best if he kept --

"Hiro! What are you doing? Go back to you're own seat."

Said intruder had both elbows propped eagerly on top of Ando's impeccable notes and was looking in the direction of the transfer with admiration glowing in eyes set behind cheap glasses. Ando's protests were ignored and his classmate grinned. "Oi, Ando, what do you think of Kaisei-san?"

"He looks ridiculous," muttered Ando, attempting to flap Hiro away from his desk area, "He's probably a bad influence as all those stupid foreigners are."

"You didn't think that when the other American girl came here last year," replied Hiro.

A blush crept across Ando's cheeks and he lightly slapped his companion's arms. "I didn't think that at first, but she was just like all the others in the end."

"Just because she said no when you asked her to lunch."

"Shut up! You're so noisy!"

"He seems different to me," said Hiro after a moment of self-imposed silence.

"Who?"

"Kaisei-san!"

"It's not Kai-sei, it's Kay-see!" snapped Ando, "Don't you ever pay attention in English class?"

"Well, I'm going to be his friend," announced Hiro confidently. "I know it."

Ando huffed in frustration into his work as Hiro bounced away towards the transfer. Half of him wanted to just leave Hiro to his own devices, it's his fault if he gets hurt by the stupid American, they never played well with those in the lower half of the class spectrum. But the other half just screamed to drag Hiro back, Hiro was _his_ friend, he didn't need any other, especially out of that waif of a boy.

It didn't matter, Hiro would see.

A week later, Ando found himself joking and laughing in his usual lunch spot with Hiro and the not-so wretched transfer.

The red-head actually wasn't that bad of a companion. He was quiet and kept usually to himself, something that Hiro's personality just seemed to take advantage of as the other boy jabbered on and on while the other sat and listened. Ando had long learned to somewhat tune out that troublesome noise, but Thomas seemed to hang onto every single work Hiro said. Soon, instead of just bringing a small bento with him to lunch, Thomas began to bring backpacks full of booklets as well.

It was with a bit of disdain and annoyance that Ando sat and read his manga while Hiro poured over the American manga that Thomas had brought with him. Thus started the Nakamura's life-long obsession.

Long after Thomas Kasey had left to return back home, Hiro still kept reading those books. Comics. But Hiro didn't leave himself just to comics, there were all sorts of other American things that the boy devoured as well: Star Trek, Star Wars, anything 'sci-fi', Hiro called it.

"Hey Ando?"

"What now?"

"If you ever had a super power, what would it be?"

Ando glanced up flatly from his workbook at Hiro and the boy looked back at him expectantly. He sighed and looked back down at his calculus and erased a few errant marks that littered his paper. "That's a stupid question."

His response seemed to be ignored as Hiro tapped his pencil on his work. "I'm serious Ando! What do you think?"

A snort escaped from Ando's large repetoire of replies as he looked back up at his friend. "I don't know, maybe I'd be able to turn invisible," he offerered sarcastically. He really should have known better than to say anything, but it was too late now and Hiro pounced on his response.

"Really? Wow, that's be a really cool super power," Hiro exclaimed eagerly. "What about me, Ando? What would my powers be?"

"I don't care okay?"

"Come on, Ando!"

Mind racing to pick out an answer to just appease Hiro's inescapable question, Ando blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Just teleport and quit bothering me."

"Teleportation! Awesome, like Nightcrawler, you know? From -"

"X-Men, I know. You've told me."

"Yes, that's the super power I want, I"ll be a hero."

"Yeah, yeah, 'Super Hiro', go ahead."

Years later, in his neatly organized cubical, Ando frowns at the memories that chose to float back up into his consciousness.

"Super Hiro. Yeah right, who's that guy kidding?" he chuckled to himself dryly, trying to concentrate on his work.

Hiro hadn't been to work for days now. The manager was near ready to pink-slip the man for being gone without notice for so long, in fact, Ando wouldn't be surprised if the slip was already sitting on the other's desk, waiting impatiently for its intended recipient.

There had been no word, no sight of the smaller man since off-note farewell at the bar.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Ando allowed himself to smile sheepishly. Of course, Hiro indeed had turned into 'Super Hiro', just as he had made himself friends -no best friends- with that American transfer those years ago. Nakamura Hiro's wishes were always granted.

Why weren't his?


	3. Life

Title: New Beginnings  
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
For: **heroes50**  
Prompt: 02. Life  
Characters: Ando Masahashi and Hiro Nakamura  
Notes: Inspired by **technosage**'s comment about why would Ando be so unreceptive to being different.

_"In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be."_ -Hubert H. Humphrey (1911 - 1978)

_"One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."_ -Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), L'Envoi, 1882

* * *

_"Nya, nya! Masahashi's sister ran away with an American dog!"_

_"What a slut."_

This was stupid. It's just cram school. It's hundreds of miles away from home, no one knew him here.

_"Hey look, it's baka-Masa."_

_"Oi Ando, quit scribbling all over your notebook and get back to work."_

Everyone here had one thing in common with him: they all wanted to to pass and or had failed the Tokyo University entrance exam. That's all anyone else would know about each other. It was a new beginning here.

_"Ando, I want you to bring the family back up. Don't let us down."_

_"Keep you head in your studies,"_

_"Try to pass the entrance exam this time, alright?"_

Here he would find his way to success and college. He'd shove away all past incidences and troubles. Here was where he would re-make himself to shine in the standards of his peers and family. No longer would he stick out like a sore and ugly thumb among others. This was like a heaven-sent.

A rough prod jolted Ando from his thoughts. Dark eyes loomed towards him behind glass lenses causing Ando to stumble backwards a few steps.

"Hiro! Don't do that!"

The aforementioned young man stared at Ando quizzically. "What are you doing?" Hiro walked a few steps back towards the building looking as if he'd rather be elsewhere before glancing back at Ando. "I wish mom and dad let me join the rotary club."

Ando snorted as he walked forward resolutely and stopped at Hiro's side. "Why is that?"

"They were having an exchange program to America for a year."

"Quit moping, we're going to be late for class," Ando muttered as he clasped Hiro's arm firmly. The smaller man protested as he was pulled through the doors of the cram school. "Liven up, Hiro. It'll be fine. We'll make it into Tokyo University in no time, and you know how many women dig men who can get into Tokyo U."

Hiro peered at Ando and sighed, his whole entire frame loosened. "If you say so."

The pair made their way through one crowded hallway before coming to their assigned class number.

"Are you sure about this?" squeaked Hiro's voice as Ando slide open the classroom door.

"Why wouldn't I? This will be fine, a 'piece of cake', right?" Ando answered, striding boldly in. Somewhere behind, Hiro reluctantly trudged after him.

Ando had learned a long time ago that being different was never a good thing. The kids in middle school who acted different were avoided and ignored at best. Those who weren't intellectual or outstanding in anything else were passed over with a cursory glance. The children who defied their parents wishes were stricken from the family memory.

He'd make sure to fit in fine here.


	4. Beginnings

Title: Rainy DaysAuthor: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
Prompt: 002 Beginnings for **heroesflashfic**  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Nakamura Hiro  
Summary: An imagination doesn't start growing on its own. There's always somebody there to help it get a running start.  
Notes: I've been wondering a little more about Hiro's comic-obsession and after reading the latest Heroes online-comic, his grandfather intrigued me a bit. I hope I'm able to do the relationship good, or at least try to fill out a little of what I thought that things might have been like for them.

* * *

It was a rainy day, seeming not any more special than all the other rainy days. Most would say that rainy days were good for nothing but sulking, sitting, and being cooped inside; but if one asked a certain Nakamura Hiro for his opinion on those grey and wet days, his response would be quite different.

At seven years old, while staying with his mother's family in the countryside, young Hiro would race home, sopping wet from head to toe and mud coating the bottoms of his shoes. While being scolded and nagged by his mother as she tugged on a new set of dry and warm clothing, Hiro always just smiled sheepishly before rushing out of the room and into the sitting room.

It was on rainy days that the sitting room was grandfather's domain, where grandfather sat and read books while sipping gratefully from the tea grandmother was always making. While Hiro sat next to his grandfather, no one dared bother him, cause that meant disturbing the elder man's peace, and according to mother, grandfather really liked that. Thought, Hiro thought differently.

Grandfather was just like him.

Every time it was raining and Hiro returned late from his free time outside soaked from the exposure, grandfather made sure to ask the boy about anything he had seen. A _kappa_? _Amefurikozou_? _Amikiri_? To which Hiro would always respond to truthfully. Most days, it was just glimpses of a bowl-shaped thing poking just above the river water's surface, some days the faintest outline of a lamp through the rain in his peripheral vision, other days, Hiro would recount with a shiver that he had heard something that sounded like the rattling of _azuki_ beans being washed.

Prospective creature sightings and recounting those tales weren't the only things that made rainy days special. What truly completed each dreary looking day was one story from the old man.

Stories that ranged from the ever comical adventures of old _amikiri_ to the bone-chilling tales of the treacherous _harionago_. They were tales that ensnared the young Nakamura's blooming imagination and entertained his thoughts during his visits.

It was on a rainy day that grandfather, while stuck in bed, had given Hiro his first own copy of an American comic book. It had been years since they had knelt together on a tatami mat to exchange sights and tales, grandfather's voice was growing weaker, but the older man's voice still managed to convey the same enthusiasm it had carried in those rainy days when Hiro was still young enough to get away with curling up at grandfather's side for hours, listening to folktales.

Grandfather accepted Hiro's new-found passion of comic books, he followed it with patiently and listened intently while Hiro described the newest issue of the next 'Action Comic' that he had recieved, or the synopsis of a new magazine that Hiro's transfer friend had loaned him over the weekend. Their roles were switched now, but it was still the same rainy day ritual.

When grandfather was admitted into the hospital, his body beginning to succumb in its long fight against the blight in his body that was cancer, Hiro's family usually visited every weekend. It was only on rainy days that the young teen managed to sneak in his small comic collection. While his parents and grandmother all left to purchase some bento from the nearby convenience store, Hiro would spread his comics across grandfather's blankets and let the man choose which one he wanted Hiro to translate, every now and then, another young man would accompany Hiro and grudgingly take over the role as translator. The two males listened closely, engrossed in the story enhanced by the other's smoother and more acurate translations and explinations.

Grandfather died on a rainy day. He died quietly, in his sleep, unable to keep up any longer with the cancer in his body.

It would have been a lie to say that after that, rainy days remained the same after that, they now held a whole different meaning to Hiro. That was until Ando came around and kicked the other, muttering something about a stupid idiot and something about the old man hating it when Hiro moped.

So rainy days went back to mostly back to normal.

But this time, Hiro would always give a moment to think back to those many years ago when grandfather was the one to begin the sparking of Hiro's imagination and dreams. He only hoped now that grandfather was watching as his dreams were fulfilled and as he was ready to save the world, just as Superman did in all the stories they shared together on those grey rain-filled days.


	5. Travel

Title: Relief  
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
Prompt: the traveling challenge  
Summary: Ando finds some reprieve while on the road.  
Notes/Warnings: Spoilers for everything including the third Heroes episode. Some bits of sexuality and some barely-there nudity.  
Rating: PG-13

* * *

This was ridiculous, exasperating, and utterly boring. 

They were lost again. Ando sighed and let the small brochure of a roadmap collapse across his face, frustrated in his attempts to read the tiny print and map keys in the weak silvery light provided by the moon on this overcast night. It figured that being the only competent driver between him and Hiro and also being the only one able to actually read and comprehend an American map was spelling trouble in their travels. Add in the fact that Hiro no longer had any idea of what they were supposed to be doing made this whole trip a recipe for disaster.

Well...almost. A smug grin formed underneath the map's crumpled paper. Laggardly, Ando sat up, letting the map slide off of his face and onto the increasingly sandy floor of the Nissan, as he reached into his pocket for his iPod.

_This_ would make things much better, much more interesting. It would take his mind off of this utter confusion of following Nakamura Hiro half-way around the world, just to save it...Couldn't he have done it back in Japan?

Ando shook away the bothersome thoughts as he switched on the device and scrolled down to his desired videos. Two cycles around the touch-pad, two clicks, and the video started. As always, the

raunchy music sounded fuzzy, the culprit was probably the microphone of the second-rate web-cam, but that wasn't what Ando was paying attention to at all. Eyes glued to the screen, he watched, entranced by the slowly increasing amount of naked skin across a firm planar stomach.

"Oi! Ando! Can I come back in the car now?"

The sound of tapping against glass was slightly ignored, as was Hiro's curious glances and attempts to see what Ando was watching so intently on the iPod. With an irritated grimace, Ando gestured Hiro away, fighting to ignore even more the ever so amused and knowing smile that was beginning to plaster itself all over the smaller man's face.

"Ohhhhh...Ando-kun and stripper-san!"

Hiro's jokering ended as the car door opened suddenly and shunted him off the road and into the sandy surroundings. Just as suddenly the door slammed shut, leaving Ando peacefully un-bothered again, and leaving Hiro outside to re-acquaint himself with the strange place that was America and maybe his powers, Ando so far couldn't tell when Hiro was actually applying his strange powers.

Back to his porn, and Hiro knew that. It was pathetic really, virgins the both of them. Hiro might not mind this being labeled on them, but Ando sure did. Well, not enough to actually _do_ something about it. He'd rather remain a virgin than pay a couple hundred dollars to some professional sex administrator to deflower himself. Ando would rather get himself laid on his own terms, thank you very much.

It wasn't as if he was addicted to it or anything, nor did he do anything as drastic as mastrubating while watching (that was back in his desparate publescent years with cheap censored videos and behind locked doors). Sure it was hot and sure this Niki was _very_ sexy, but...it was just entertaining to watch. Not a funny entertainment, but rather a boredom-relieving, sort of guilty entertainment. Ando wouldn't let himself watch the videos at work if they were anything else.

"But Ando!" came Hiro's voice, slightly muffled by the closed windows of the car. "It's my turn to get to watch something. You've been in there for an hour"

Ando's face dead-panned before rolling down his window. " _I've_ been looking for a way to actually get us to Las Vegas. You're too noisy," he grumbled. "Watch your Final Fantasy later, I've just started." With that, the opening was closed again.

Traveling could be fun and getting lost could be just as useful at times, Ando admitted silently to himself. One just had to know how to entertain oneself.


	6. Search

Title: Extras  
Author: Darkfireblade aka Hellsfirescythe  
For: lj userheroes50  
Prompt: 03 Search  
Characters/Pairings: Ando, Hiro  
Rating: G  
Notes: Spoilers for nothing, this short story links to my other Heroes fics, but those aren't necessary to understand most of this.

_"Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it."_ -Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC

_"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."_ -Jacques Delille

* * *

Two large onigiri filled up his bento as usual. It was really pointless to ask mother to pack any less, she was still under the impression that there were people that existed in this world that would want to share with anyone with the surname of Masahashi any longer. Ando stabbed at one of the rice balls viciously, the thin seaweed covering ripped easily and the various holes soon revealed the salted salmon filling inside. Good, because he'd rather not have umeboshi inside his lunch any time soon. Mother must have remembered, for once.

Coming back to middle school was hell, especially since that brown-haired grey-eyed man finally left. The idiot didn't leave empty handed either, as foreigners were prone to do. They just gathered up anything that happened to take their fancy. 'Why in the world would they need to worry about how their pickings effect others?' Sarcasm just seemed to ooze from everywhere today. A frown fixed itself firmly on Ando's countenance before he took a large bite out of his well-abused onigiri.

The noise from the courtyard seemed to increase from a dull hum to a curious buzz. Ando distastefully sipped his lemon tea -the only decent flavor he could afford from the machine- and leaned back into the empty doorway that was his lunchtime haunt. Ito-sensei had mentioned that there was a new student transferring from some big-city middle school. Just what he needed, another big headed classmate with stellar grades to look down or pity him. It didn't really matter though, the transfer was placed in a separate class from his own, there was no reason for the other to have anything to do with Masahashi Ando. Most especially if this new student was truly from the coast.

Footsteps down the sidewalk made Ando look up, his hand curled resolutely around a smooth stone from the nearby rock garden (He would have to ask for the janitor's pardon later). A small-statured figure rounded the corner and Ando's frame relaxed. It must be one of the new underclassmen. After a few seconds, the boy finally spotted Ando and turned to bow before waving affably, a nervous twitch barely visible in his lowered hand. "Ummm...hi. Do you know where I can find a vending machine?"

Ando reached for his can of tea before grunting and tipping it in the direction of the queried objects. The underclassman bowed gratefully and smiled brightly in Ando's direction. Ando stared as the boy strode up purposefully and extended a hand out. "My name's Nakamura Hiro. Pleased to meet you!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to shake your hand. My grandfather told me that's how people greet each other in America."

With a sneer, Ando slapped the offending hand away. "This isn't America, stupid."

Nakamura stared from his hand to Ando before breaking into a wide smile, much to Ando's surprise. "A 'high-five' is just as good."

"High...five?"

Before Ando had a chance to continue his overall assessment of the strange underclassman, a bell rung loudly, causing both of them to jump. Nakamura looked sheepish as he pulled his hand away and retreated a few steps.

"I'd better go get something to munch on before class starts. See you later!"

The short meeting between him and the underclassman happened over and over again over the next week. It was always some reason or the other that the smaller boy would invade his lunch-area to ask an inane question, either about the placement of certain things in the school or even about things as pathetic as the weather. It was stupid really.

"Wow Ando, you really suck."

A collective chuckle rippled through the entire crowd gathered eagerly around the newly posted test scores.

"You could have passed the test, or were you too busy staring into space for the whole entire class?"

Another snicker.

Ando refused to look back at his malefactors and ignored the furious burning of his ears. They didn't matter, he should be used to this by now. Stupid idiots, he'd show them...

"Hey! Hey! It's you! Masahashi-san right?" A finger prodded lightly against Ando's shoulder. "Remember me? Nakamura Hiro?"

Some murmurs dispersed throughout the crowd and Ando could hear some of them moving further away.

"Hello? Earth to Masahashi-san."

"What do you want?"

"Ah...well, can I eat lunch with you?"

"Shut up, you're being noisy," Ando interrupted, the words not as forceful as he would have liked them to sound. A stretch of forced silence descended between the two of them and Ando closed his eyes wearily. "An underclassman shouldn't be so demanding."

"..."

"But I suppose I can't stop you from barging in like you always do."

"..."

Ando glanced and saw an embarrassed blush starting to form on Nakamura's face and turned around to face the boy. "That's a yes you idiot!"

"Ah, yes, of course Masahashi-san!"

Masahashi Ando never would admit to ever being lonely, but he was a little appreciative to the underclassman's presence. At least it meant that mother no longer looked at him with those eyes whenever he came back home with one onigiri left intact in his lunch box. Instead she smiled at his empty dishes and persisted in making him extra food for the next day, he couldn't help it if Nakamura Hiro was a rather hearty eater. It wasn't as if he was sharing his lunch with the boy or anything. It was just that Nakamura would always look at Ando's extra serving, whatever the item, with the most forlorn look in his eyes...at least, that's what Ando would always say no matter what Nakamura said about their meeting being 'determined by fate'.

It was a few weeks into their tentative friendship that Nakamura finally mentioned that fact that he was actually not an underclassman, but had transferred from some middle school off the east coast of the main island not too long ago.


	7. Weekend Musings

Title: Weekend Musings  
Recipient: lastoftheuchiha  
Author: Darkfireblade  
For: lj community heroesholidays  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Hiro/Ando fluff  
Summary: On a rainy Saturday night, Ando finds himself reflecting on his sudden friendship with a newly arrived Hiro Nakamura and where it might lead them.

* * *

"Hiro? Hiro, are you awake?"

Ando tapped the smaller man on the shoulder and received no answer from him but a tired groan. In the foreground, the blare of the television screen provided the small apartment sitting room its only illumination. So much for a Star Trek marathon for the both of them; they had only managed to watch five episodes before Hiro drifted off to sleep, his head falling onto Ando's lap.

It was only after a few minutes of prodding that Ando gave up trying to revive his sleeping companion. Hiro wasn't going to be waking up any time soon, no thanks to the painstaking demands of being the new group leader of their work division. Ando sighed, sunk deeper into the couch and watched as the crew of the Enterprise set about to solve another round of problems they were facing.

A few minutes passed. Ando sighed again and rubbed at his slightly stinging eyes. A remote was produced grudgingly from between some couch cushions and the TV blinked off. Watching the series just wasn't quite the same without Hiro's fascinated (and at times fascinating) commentary. Ando's eyes drifted aimlessly around Hiro's apartment, gaze sliding from one poster to another; none of them caught his waning interest. Finally, his sight was directed back at the intruder of his personal space.

Hiro Nakamura was an out of the closet otaku and all-around eccentric. Ando Masahashi was at the bottom of nearly all his classes and a fine example of complying with society's demands. Yet despite their glaringly obvious differences, Hiro had somehow managed to plant himself firmly into Ando's secluded life. Ando had expected money, and endless shifts staring listlessly at a computer screen from his job; he had not expected to land himself with a fumbling desk partner with more inquiries than the company's Q&A handbook. The next thing he knew, Ando was spending more hours with his partner than he was with himself.

Some people at work snickered upon realizing the amount of time the duo spent together nowadays. One would almost never see Ando without Hiro following close behind, or vice versa. In their early days working together, such tailing by Hiro was highly noticeable and unnerving to Ando. It had taken over a month for him to realize that Hiro was only doing what he thought his job entailed; but by then, the other's presence barely registered as a blip in Ando's figurative radar. Only when Hiro didn't show up to work one day did Ando appreciate the constant that Hiro had been. Well, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Makes the heart grow fonder…Ando frowned and studied his companion's boyish face. How fond he could stand letting his heart get was the question. He heard the whispers at work, but then again, the S.O.B.s there whispered about anything and everything they could. Ando had almost taken it upon himself one day to take matters into his own hands, only to be surprised with the fact that Hiro had beaten him to the punch. Apparently, Hiro had also heard the rumors circulating around the workplace and had given himself the responsibility of not only defending his own honor but Ando's as well. That quieted things down for a while, but as usual, things started back up again. They always did.

Ando took it all in stride: after all, the world wasn't perfect and one only did what one could and tolerated the things one couldn't. Hiro, on the other hand, with his heroic preconceptions on how the world worked drawn from American comic books and various manga sources refused to take such abuse from the others lying down. And of course, Hiro's vehement defense of Ando just added more kindling to the others' fire and Ando had to draw Hiro aside more than once to explain to his partner that reality just didn't work the way Hiro imagined it. Those talks never really worked.

That was another side of Hiro that Ando just couldn't understand. It was Hiro's utterly wild imagination as well as his morals taken straight from a naïve protagonist's viewpoint of the world. Ando tolerated some of Hiro's stories, such as the one that was jokingly known as "Future Hiro" (Hiro had come to a conclusion after filling in for Ando at work one day that a Hiro Nakamura from the future had phoned in asking the missing partner's advice). When asked for his reasoning, Hiro just shrugged and answered that he knew his own voice and that if he ever accidentally traveled back in time Ando would be the first one to call. Ando just smirked and told Hiro to lay off on the sake. That comment was received with a wrinkling of the nose and mock cold-shoulder treatment for the rest of the day.

Hesitantly, Ando reached out his hand and brushed it softly through Hiro's short-cropped hair. It was unsurprisingly soft to the touch. When Hiro's head unconsciously nudged back towards Ando's hand, he nearly jerked away in surprise.

Okay, so Hiro Nakamura was complete weirdo and a geek. Not only that, but he had his head in the clouds and had not fully grasped the idea of reality even at the age of twenty-three. But having Hiro Nakamura around all the time wasn't quite as bad of an experience that Ando had thought it would be. Who could have imagined that the bumbling idiot that couldn't even staple a document on the right side (Hiro always stapled it on the right, which ticked the living daylights out of Ando) would become one of his only sources of entertainment and camaraderie? Ando sure couldn't.

While Ando mused to himself, he didn't notice the sliver of partway open eyes gleaming up at him. Hiro quickly shut his eyes back up again before Ando's attention returned back on him. He was enjoying this brief lapse of Ando's usually brusque self and planned on enjoying it some more. With a shadow of a smile gracing Hiro's face, he snuggled closer into Ando's hand, hoping that the other would just mistake it for a restless sleep.


End file.
